Attractions & things to do for the kids in your life

VISITOR INFORMATION

Schedule / hours: 2017: Open daily at 10 a.m.; closes at 6 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, at 9 p.m. on Fridays and at 5 p.m. on the weekends and Holidays. Family Day every Sunday (included with admission). FREE guided tours every day at 2 p.m.Admission price: 2017: $15/adults, $11/seniors, $9/students, half-price on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., FREE under 12 years. Cost of admission includes access to current exhibitions. Address: 111 Queen's Park TorontoPhone: 416-586-8080Website: www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/Nearby restaurants: The Gardiner Bistro located on the third floor is not a family restaurant, better suited for girlfriends outings (open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. but closes at 8 p.m. on Fridays). With children, I recommend Hemingway's on 142 Cumberland, with its heated year-round rooftop and vast menu. While you are there: When I'm in the area, I like to take kids to the Yorkville Park on Cumberland (one street north of Bloor). They can't resist climbing up the 650-ton mound of granite.Age group: 4 - 16 years old

Great on all levels!

My favourite time of the year to visit the Gardiner Ceramic Museum with children is during the 12 Trees of Christmas event but any other time, kids will enjoy their visit, if you put them in an I-Spy game state-of-mind. Even better, on Sundays, the museum offers family activities included with the cost of admission.

You'll find something to catch their attention on all levels of the Gardiner Museum. Start the visit with the Modern and Contemporary Ceramics gallery on the ground level, where we get to marvel at the skills of artists able to make ceramic look like leather, metal, fabric or vegetables. The most whimsical pieces are found in the European Porcelain galleries on your left on the second floor. Our favourites: the Monkey Orchestra figurines, the Pug dogs from Germany and the wall display of one hundred tiny scent bottles. Last time I visited that section in November 2015, they had recreated a scene in a glass showcase, inspired by a French painting (included in the display) and featuring a life-size woman in a "boudoir" from the mid-18th century. Many other pieces in the other galleries depict intricate scenes of war. (Check the animal-themed I-Spy game I created for the Gardiner Museum.)

The current exhibition on the third floor, presented until January 20, 2016, is quite spectacular! In Kent Monkman: Rise and Fall of Civilization installation, large bisons painted on the walls surround a 9 feet high cliff from which a huge bison jumps under the eye of Miss Chief, the alter-ego of the Cree artist. At the foot of the cliff lay crashed ceramics, like crushed bones from the hunted animals. Quite a sight!